Three questions for you: 1) Do you have heart disease? 2) Do you have diabetes? And 3) Are you a woman? If you answered Yes to #3 and/or #1 or #2, then you may be interested to know that you are less likely to receive proper care than men who would have also answered Yes to #1 and #2.

According to a study conducted by the RAND Corporation, women with diabetes and/or heart disease are less likely to receive a variety of outpatient medical treatments than their male counterparts. Bear in mind that all of the patients in the study either had private insurance or were enrolled in Medicare -- so this disparity did not come as a result of an insurance coverage gap. Moreover, the scientific conclusions were not drawn from a small sample size of a few thousand people. Try 50,000 men and women for a sample size -- a bit more reliable, if you ask me.

Just to give you a general idea of this gender disparity, here's an example: Women were prescribed ACE inhibitor drugs for chronic heart failure far less than men were, and the same goes for beta blockers after a heart attack. This is just one of the many instances where gender appeared to influence a patient's medical treatment. More can be found on the RAND website at: www.rand.org

A simple test may be able to provide Indian (people that are either from, or decendants of people from, the country India) with a fairly accurate assesment as to their chances of developing diabetes and heart disease.

All it requires is a tape measure.

If you are an Indian woman with a waist of over 32 inches or an Indian man with a waist of 35 inches or more, your odds of developing diabetes or heart disease are incredibly high.

Based on numerous studies, Indian men develop heart disease more than any other group, regardless of where in the world they live. In India, the percentage of heart disease his risen by 300 percent over the past thirty years, while it has steadily decreased by about 60 percent here in the U.S. As for diabetes, the risk is also very great for Indian men and women, particularly those who have expanded wasitlines. The belly fat is more dangerous than fat in, say, the legs or buttocks because it "produces biological and active molecules and hormones that lead to the develoment of diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

It also appears as though age does not play as big a factor as one might anticipate. The information also posited that Indian children as young as 8 years old demonstrated a greater risk for diabetes and heart disease as their waistlines grew. In fact, the propensity to develop these two diseases is twice as high in Indian children than in white children "because of the different distribution of abdominal obesity and general obesity."

One of my earlier posts mentioned that a surge in diabetes could actually reverse the recent downward trend in heart disease. Now Colorado education specialists warn that women with diabetes are five times more at risk of cardiovascular disease compared to women without diabetes. And, the rate of deaths from a heart attack or stroke is greater in women with diabetes than in men with diabetes. As part of their ongoing campaign, the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) stresses the ABC's of diabetes management to women, along with helpful tips:

A - A1C, a blood test that measures the average of high blood glucose over the last three months. (Eat less, exercise more.)

B - Blood pressure. (Lose weight, reduce salt and alcohol, quit smoking, eat fruits and vegetables.)

C - Cholesterol. (Eat less saturated and trans fat, eat more fiber, drink at least 64 ounces of fluids daily, exercise regularly.)

 

Women with type 1 diabetes are more likely to develop osteoporosis than their counterparts without the disease. Researchers have not yet identified specific reasons for the link between type 1 diabetes and reduced bone mineral density (BMD) in women. However, reduced blood sugars and increased bone turnovers could be among the possible reasons. There is also a purported connection among elderly populations between lower levels of BMD and cardiovascular disease; cardiovascular disease is also a common complication of diabetes. Women who have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes commonly begin reporting a greater number of bone fractures after the age of 20; the research all indicates that women with this diagnosis should be screened for osteoporosis and BMD levels, particularly closely during the onset of menopause.